The Indianapolis News from Indianapolis, Indiana • 17

((-- 'Hiding Out' Personalities MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 14, THE NEWS In The Studio Inside: Amusements Sports PAGE 17 Goodall Still Breaks Barriers By JACK HURST Nashville's Tennessee School for the Blind had in the 1940s "an old, barrel type fire escape" into which young Hargus Robbins of Spring i City, would often slip to hide. It wasn't an awfully good hideout the teacher always seemed to find him but it was a fine place for a boy to do something boys love to do: plained when he took time off to attend the school board meetings. After four years on the board, he chose not to seek re-election. Political Success By ANDREW NEAL UPI Reporter Although he has been elected three times to represent a legislative district that is 75 percent white. Rep.

Hurley Goodall, DMuncie, knows what racism is all about. Goodall, 55, has battled racism throughout his life, overcoming the barriers that once kept people of his color from becoming fire fighters, school board members and lawmakers. Goodall was born and raised in Muncie where he was a fire fighter for 20 years before retiring to run for the Legislature in 1978. He has faced no opposition during the last two elections, a sign of his popularity in a heavily Democratic blue collar district. Goodall has led a life of firsts.

In 1958, city officials decided to desegregate the Muncie Fire Department and Goodall was in the first group of blacks accepted. "I'd been trying to get on since I came out of the service in 1948," recalled Goodall, who kept a diary during the difficult first years on the force. Blatant Racism He remembers the time a petition was signed by a majority of the force, saying "they did not want to work with blacks because they did not want to sleep in a bed a black had slept in or use the same cooking utensils." "We would go on fires and other people would be relieved and we would not be relieved," Goodall said. "I went 24 hours once without being relieved." Goodall said incidents of blatant racism were hard to take. "I felt like quitting several times.

But I felt I'd made a commitment to break that color line. I didn't come there to hassle a lot of pople. We came there to-do a job." Another first for Goodall occurred in 1970, when he successfully ran for the Muncie Board of Education. He. "I think it was envy," Goodall said, referring to the white fire fighters' negative reaction to his political success.

"There were a lot of people there who said 'you can't get It was kind of a joke to them." In 1976. a board member died and Goodall was asked to serve again on the board, this' time with the "promise city people would be supportive." Goodall said there still is racism to battle, even at the Legislature, which has eight black members. Although measures insuring the set-aside of state contracts for minor- ity groups occasionally are success-ful, he is particularly frustrated by the Legislature's failure to make Martin Luther King's birthday a holiday. "They (the whites) cannot relate to him, but they expect us to relate to George Washington and Abe Lincoln," Goodall said. "We have to have role models for our children just like the white community has for their children.

One thing we have a hard time developing is models other than the pimp on the street and the dope pusher." Lacks Black Input Goodall laments there are no black Republicans in the Legislature. As the majority party, the GOP determines public policy, which lacks needed input from blacks, he said. Goodall said he tries "to keep the black members of the General Assembly together and keep stock of each other." He said he urges them to scrutinize every bill and ask: "How will it affect the black community? What is our fair share of the pie?" "That's our role, to kind of be the conscience of this body as far as the black community is concerned and not get so strident that we turn people off," Goodall said. Vet able as it comes out, rather than to wait until said the Legion wants the problem "assessed as rapidly as possible." There are about 28 million veterans eligible for American Legion membership. Hargus 'Pig' Robbins He was about 2 V4 when the accident occurred, and he doesn't remember that it hurt.

The real tran-ma must have come later, after his parents "grabbed me up and took me to a little country doctor." They eventually took him to specialists in Chattanooga, where one said the damaged eye could be saved and the other advised removing it to prevent damaging the other. "Of course my parents didn't know what advice to take," he says. "So they waited around a while before they had it taken out, and by then it had affected the other one. So I just gradually went blind. I was probably blind by the time I was, oh, four years old." The only color he really remembers is green, and he remembers it fondly: "We had an old, green '37 Chevrolet, and I thought that was the prettiest thing." He well remembers the anxiety of leaving home to spend nine months a year at the Nashville school.

Graduating, he took a job on the night shift at a photo-finishing firm'. On weekends, he played piano, usually "what I'd call rockabilly music" for "$10 or $12 a night" in the dives of Nashville and nearby Fort Campbell, Ky. He got into studio work pretty quickly. First, he made demo record? for a couple of songwriters, then began to get fairly steady record work when the Starday company opened its Nashville studio. His work further increased around 1960 when Floyd Cramer, who had cornered most of Nashville's studio piano worR up to then, made his hit recording of the song "Last Date" and hit the; concert trail.

When Mercury Records opened its Nashville operation, things got even busier. Given the chance, Robbins quick-; ly made his nickname well-known among musicians and producers. 1983 Tribune Co. Syndicate Get dirty. The teacher would haul young Robbins out of the fire escape and exclaim: "You look like a little pig!" Thus did the Tennessee capital christen "Pig" Robbins, whose name in manhood has 'become one of the most renowned and respected among those of that city's elite corps of studio musicians.

For nearly a quarter century since George Jones' Lightning" in 1959 Robbins has been involved in the process of manufacturing Nashville's hits. He's so good at it that he often plays piano on the records of even gifted pianist-singers. The nickname isn't the only notable thing Robbins got from the School for the Blind. His earliest piano training also occurred there. It began in the second grade, and he quickly wished it hadn't.

Classical-Oriented "I thought I'd be learning to play the music I was hearing on the radio," he says. "What I found out was that it was a classical-oriented school. And when you joined anything in that school, it was like the Army: You couldn't un join." He continued to receive "classical-oriented" piano instruction through the 10th grade. Meanwhile, he kept listening to rhythm and blues and rockabilly music on such radio stations as Nashville's influential WLAC. His tastes became so eclectic that, he recalls, he wound up "stealing a lot of licks" from such varied pianists as Ramsey Lewis, Ray Charles and his own predecessor in the Nashville recording studios, Floyd Cramer.

"I like every kind of music there is except operatic and progressive jazz," Robbins says. "The only reason I don't like them, I guess, is that I don't understand them. I like blue-grass, gospel and even rock, except for acid rock." His first favorite singer, he recalls, was Tex Ritter. He was then an East Tennessee child of about four from whose vision the world was rapidly fading. His family's home was so rural and poor that it lacked electricity, and his parents hadn't known what to do one day when their son got a knife out of his father's pants pocket, tried to climb onto a chair with it half-opened and fell on the knife, driving its point into an eye.

Savings Shop EXTRA $50 OFF All Reduced Sleepers Queen Full Size Many fabric covers to choose from Was $499 lo $799 NOW $349 to $499 ties. $onn $Mfi WED. id to ti; Rep. Hurley Goodall speaks in the House. UPI Goodall said fellow members of the fire department continually com Legion Chief Is WWII DOWNTOWN 2 DAY SALE Tues.

Furniture SAVE 150 to $260 5-Pc. Dinette Set Assorted styles of Formica top tables 4 chairs with chrome legs Only 20 to sell Was $299 to $409 NOW $179 $1AQ WED. L7 By ROBERT CORYA The last thing Albert Keller Jr. expected, in bailing out of a crippled 24 over Vienna in 1945, was to land in Indianapolis as national commander of the American Legion. Even after his brief time as a prisoner of war, Keller's interest in things Legion revolved around Fri-.

day night dances and good fried chicken at Legion Post 85 (n Kanka-. kee. III. This year he leads the world's largest veterans organization, His flying days are far from over. "We'll cover all but two states this year, and Mexico, Canada, Europe," he said, explaining his and the Legion's interest in places where Le-, gion members live or where it has an interest.

"I spent all of December in the Far East meeting United States ambassadors, GIs, being briefed on what is happening in those areas," said the 57 year-old Keller. He has some significant plans for the Legion. "When I was elected in Chicago, I emphasized Legion posts needed to become community-oriented again. They had lost some community impact. I want them out of clubhouses and into the streets of communities.

We were organized in 1919 'for God and he said. posts get more involved again, our membership (which has declined from its peak) will rise. As it rises, it will give us moYe clout in Washington with legislation for veterans in pensions, jobs and veterans programs, and adequate military pay" 2.6 Million Strong Keller said the Legion was established after World War I to deal with anticipated issues affecting veterans. It has 2.6 million members who served in both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam, the latter providing 25 percent of the Legion's current membership and 60 percent of the Legion's staff in Indianapolis headquarters and Washington. Part of the stagnant membership was the first and only black to serve on the board.

Albert Keller Jr. in WWII total is attributed to rapidly declining numbers of WW I veterans (50,000 left) "whose average age now is about 86," Keller said. "And we know many veterans haven't yet been invited to join." Other key categories of Legion activity are: Comradeship among members Youth programs U.S. security Foreign relations "We have a $16,000 oratorical contest for a student scholarship each year," Keller said, citing one of many youth-oriented activities. Others include Legion baseball.

Special Olympics, which will be in New Orleans in July, Boys State and Boys Nation. So how does a fellow rise to head such an organization? "A World War I veteran asked me to join in Kankakee. After the social side, I saw it had a good baseball program, and then I saw other programs of interest. My post made me an officer, and I became post commander and got a taste for district manager, and then state commander in '58 and '59. "People monitor what we do, and I got onto some national committees, and finally Illinois members made me a candidate for our national convention, and national convention delegates elected me." Lewis told his grinning wife.

"Didn't I tell you, little urchin, that you'd find a famous Jewish movie star?" Lewis described the Jewish ceremony, the second marriage for both, as "beautiful." Lewis was recently divorced from Patti Lewis after 37 years of marriage. Even though he underwent double bypass heart surgery late last year, Lewis said he had no plans of slowing down. Lewis wore a dark blue sports coat, deep red bow tie and light blue slacks. At one point he reached into his jacket and asked photographers, miMe-rmiM-r'rtm- Scratch Shop Wed. only 267-330 1 EXTRA 20 OFF Sofas Loveseats Traditional contemporary style Covers protected by Scotchguard fabric protector Was $399 lo $799 NOW $199 to $449 TIES.

WED. 267-3373 Tues. Wed. Was $399 to $429 $99 to $499 Now H79-8224 $49 to $299 44-269 $249 to $499 $129 to $299 97-224 499 $599 $149 to $99 to $299 $229 89-206 Quantities Last! AUTO 7-6 Extra 10 off All Appliances Save an Extra 10 to 25 off All Furniture Albert Keller today Keller attended the University of Illinois, found few openings for veterinary schools in which he had an interest, "but meanwhile I met a fine young lady named Genevieve we call her Gen and she became my wife." They have sons Karl, a dentist, and George, a customs official in Miami. Keller was assistant to the chairman of the Kankakee County Board when elected to head the Legion.

He also has done cost accounting work for Houde Houde Accounting at Kankakee. Captured By Germans His capture by German troops came within weeks of the end of the war in Europe, he said. Although a national study is being made of Agent Orange, used as a defoliant in Vietnam, which is to be completed in 1987, Keller said he wants "any data to be made avail- "Anybody out? I've got all the film you need." His bride wore a high-collared. ivory chiffon dress with a Idee mantle around her shoulders, a crown of baby's breath and pink roses in her auburn hair. Joe Stabile, the comedian's personal manager, gave the bride away and the best man was Bob Ross, national director fo the Muscular Dystrophy The couple planned a brief stopover in Geneva, Switzerland, this week and then a two-week honeymoon in Rome.

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Fl. Refrigerator $549.00 $494.0 15.1 Cu. Fl. Refrigerator $519.00 Electric Dryer $269.95 22 Heavy Duly Washer' $339.95 'flOS'' 30" Electric Range $479.95 $329.00 30" Gas Range $539.95 $139.00 30" Range Hood $59.95 $29.97 26''' Lewis Bites Bride's Nose 4-pc. BEDROOM SET $1099 ASSORTED DRESSERS CHESTS While MIAMI (UPI) Looking tanned and healthy despite recent heart surgery, a newly married Jerry Lewis rolled odt one-liners and bit his bride's nose for a crowd of waiting fans, photographers and reporters.

Lewis, 57, married long time companion Sandra Pitnick in a private. traditional ceremony yesterday with close friends and family at a Key Biscayne hotel. The comedian and his 32 year-old bride talked and clowned with the crowd before heading off to the wedding feast. "To heck with dinner. Let's find a small room at the Ramada Inn," Remember: Tues.

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